The corridor of the underground archives fell into silence.

This place is located in the basement of the highest-level city-state university in Breeze Harbor. Analogous to the city-states under the management of the Deep Sea or the Church of Death, this place is equivalent to the central cathedral of the entire city. The "sealed objects" that can be contained in such a place are of course extraordinary. At least they have to be "abnormal" like Alice, which is ranked in the top 100, or pollution carriers of similar danger.

This level of anomalies and contamination carriers have one common characteristic: living characteristics.

They may have incredible thinking abilities, the ability to communicate with people, or the tendency to move and escape. Regardless of the strength of these "living characteristics", they can at least achieve the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm - just like Alice instinctively remained obedient even though she didn't know Duncan at all.

In short, he has some brains, though not much, but he is afraid of death.

Duncan likes people who have some brains, which can save him a lot of trouble in many cases.

Lucrecia looked over here with a hint of awe, while Nina and Shirley first opened their eyes wide in surprise, and then raised their faces triumphantly - no one knew what they were so proud of.

Ted Riel was stunned for a moment, and then he looked at Duncan with a complicated look - he was not as fearful as ordinary people, but he was not wary or hostile either. He seemed to be thinking about something, and after several seconds he suddenly said, "You can come here more often when you stay in Breeze Harbor."

"Oh?" Duncan was a little surprised. "When other city-states first dealt with me, they all hoped that I would stay away. Places like the Central Cathedral were heavily guarded from the first moment. Why did you take the initiative to invite me?"

Ted raised his hand and pointed to the quiet hallway. "If you stay here, I can take a break."

Duncan: “……?”

However, the "Truth Keeper" in front of him did not care about the subtle reactions of others after his words. He just said this and continued to walk deeper into the corridor.

The others followed, but this time Duncan deliberately lagged behind. He came to Lucrecia's side and asked in a low voice, "I can't remember anything about this 'Secret Keeper'. Has he always been like this? I mean... this kind of resentment that seems to have been working overtime for a lifetime."

Lucrecia also lowered her voice: "Sir Ted is currently teaching the graduating class."

Duncan was stunned when he heard this: "...The leader of the city-state's defenders is also responsible for this? I remember that when Vanna was an inquisitor, there was no similar extra work."

"The power bestowed by God is closely related to the words and deeds of believers. Studying and spreading knowledge are necessary processes for Lahem's believers to 'perform the sacraments'. Therefore, the entire priest system of the Academy of Truth is organized in the form of an 'academy'. Senior priests must serve as mentors to teach students. The higher the level, the heavier and more difficult the teaching tasks are. Therefore, the Keeper of Truth has to teach the graduating class, and it is the most difficult class to teach."

Duncan: “…”

Listening to the wonderful new knowledge that Lucrecia shared, he couldn't help but feel some strange feelings in his heart, so he couldn't help but look up and take a closer look at the secret keeper not far away.

Ted Lear, who was walking in front, instantly noticed this gaze. He turned his head and a trace of doubt came over the keeper's mind.

Why is it that Captain Duncan, who had lost his memory due to the influence of the subspace and was like a stranger to himself just now, suddenly looked at me with a look filled with inexplicable understanding, nostalgia and sympathy?

After a brief moment of confusion, Ted Lear shook his head and stopped in front of a door at the end of the corridor.

"This is it, containment room number 24." He raised his hand and pointed at the door in front of him.

The door was depicted with many sacred runes, and the whole thing seemed to be made of black steel, with silver-white metal particles inlaid on the surface. Shirley looked at the door curiously for a few times, and she felt as if her eyes were being attracted by the deep black and the silver dots. She felt as if she was leaving her body, and she was so scared that she quickly retracted her gaze.

Nina raised her head and looked at the corridor she came from, then looked around Sample Containment Room No. 24, frowning slightly with some curiosity: "I can't see even a single guard here? Isn't there anyone guarding such an important and dangerous place?"

"There are guards at necessary points, but the fewer people around each containment room, the better," Ted Lill glanced at the curious girl and explained casually, "Because some 'anomalies' have the ability to parasitize the mind and jump the mind, too many guards around the containment room will make it possible for those things to break out of containment."

"For most 'anomalies' and contaminants, the correct sealing method is far more important than the number of security personnel," Lucrecia explained. "A correctly placed stone or metal powder sprinkled on the ground can keep some anomalies quiet for years, but an extra 'person' may cause invisible and intangible forces to break through containment. Therefore, the core areas of many sealing facilities have the least number of people, and many sealing measures take effect automatically when no one is around."

"The guards outside the core area are not so much to deal with the monsters inside, but to deal with external intrusions to prevent people from breaking in and destroying the containment conditions," Ted Riel nodded and put his hand on the door of the sample containment room. With a slight "click" sound coming from somewhere, the door opened. "But... the sample sent in this time is really the most special one I have ever seen. I'm not even sure whether I should put it in the sample containment room or somewhere else."

The door opened, and a brightly lit but not very spacious room appeared in front of everyone. The floor and walls of the room were painted with complex and precise sacred symbols. There were an astonishing number of oil lamps with special grease added and gas lamps on the walls. Apart from that, there were no extra furnishings or furniture in the room. There was only a square platform in the center, and on the platform was placed that strange... "sample".

A clergyman wearing an academic robe, a strange black mask on his face, and his hands tightly locked was standing next to the platform. He seemed to be the guard of this containment room. When Ted Lear and his group walked into the room, the "guard" with strange locks on his hands looked up, then his eyes fell on Ted and he nodded slightly.

"Does the sample show any signs of activity?" Ted asked.

The watcher shook his head in silence.

"Are there any signs that the shackles are open?" Ted asked again.

The Guardian raised his hands, showed the shackles on his hands to the Secret Keeper, and shook his head.

"Okay, you've worked hard. Go and have a rest first." Ted seemed relieved and nodded slightly. "I'll take over here. Remember, put the shackles back on the statue's hands yourself. Don't try to switch places with the statue, and don't respond to its 'calls for help.'"

The guard nodded without saying a word, then turned and walked out of the room.

"The shackles are part of Anomaly-087 'Stone Statue'," Ted Riel explained to Duncan and the others after the guards left. "Through a special 'protocol' ritual, we can borrow the shackles from the 'Stone Statue' for a certain period of time. The wearer of the shackles cannot speak, and can imprison and restrain a selected entity in front of him during the wearing period. We usually use it to assist in controlling those dangerous objects that have just been discovered and whose nature is still unclear."

"For example... a 'reality invader' who suddenly appeared at the market with a mysterious origin."

Lucrecia muttered softly, looking up at the strange "substance" on the platform in the center of the room that looked quiet and had an iron-gray metallic luster.

That thing looked like a ball of steel that had cooled and solidified, but the lines and contours on the surface still retained a strange softness and smoothness, as if it had once wriggled and undulated like some kind of mollusk, and then quickly solidified into this state. On its smooth "skin", there were occasionally some angular protrusions, and those protrusions gave people a feeling...

It was as if something was trying to break free from inside this mass of "matter".

"These bulges appeared after the sample was sent to the containment room," Ted Lill explained. "A few minutes after it was sent to the containment room, it suddenly showed strong activity again, and its surface structure changed a lot. We once thought that it would try to break free from the seal here, and even considered sending it to a higher-level containment area. But after those few minutes, its activity dropped sharply again, and it has dropped to what it is now - almost a piece of solid metal."

"Almost?" Duncan keenly noticed the key point in the other party's words.

"Yes, almost, because it is actually still 'alive'," Ted Lear nodded, "In the core area of ​​this mass of matter, there is always a weak active 'signal'. Even if the whole mass of matter has solidified like this, the core is still active. You can even hear it-"

As he spoke, the Secret Keeper opened his magical book again, turned to one of the pages and tapped it lightly with his fingers.

A device resembling a stethoscope appeared out of thin air above the pages of the book.

Ted Lear casually put the book back under his arm, picked up the "stethoscope" and hung it around his neck, then carefully pressed the other end of the stethoscope on the surface of the "solidified metal".

The next second, a rhythmic sound echoed throughout the room -

Plop, plop, plop…

"It has a heartbeat," Ted Lear looked up. "Inside this mass of metal, there is a living heart."